A response to Norrient’s article “Redefining Englishness” written by Louise Gray on Bishi Bhattacharya work
This matter was previously discussed in a blog post entitled Oh Povo Que Cantas, where I went through my identity problem in 2018.
I believe we all owe something to the place that raised and originates us. I was born Portuguese in Porto, Portugal, in 2000, in a zone called Matosinhos. I left the country to live 500km into the Iberian Peninsula in Madrid, where I stayed there till September 2020, a month before my move to London. I learned something more significant than the Portuguese identity, which is not Spanish because that remains on the same level, but the Iberian identity is called iberism. This pan-nationalist ideology supports the federation of all Iberian states.
There is currently no such thing as Iberian art. However, many thinkers and philosophers practised this idea in their works, such as Miguel de Unamuno, a basque philosopher known for his controversial positioning during the Spanish Civil War, and the Portuguese Nobel winner José Saramago. In this case, there is nothing to be redefined because there is nothing defined yet. I want and believe in the prescribing of Iberianess. For that, I will explore the many sonic and musical cultures in all the Peninsula’s regions:
Northern Portugal
The north of Portugal is a major region that combines the provinces of Minho, Douro Litoral, Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro.
Entrudo Chocalheiro ou Caretos de Podence: it occurs in the Trás-os-Montes Carnival where men dressed in careto – a colourful masked figure that represents the devil – shake their hips that symbolically signifies the touch of the Death, the Devil, and Censor
Cantares ao Desafio ou Desgarrada: it occurs in both Douro Litoral and Minho, being more evident on the last one. It consists of improvised singing between two individuals where they challenge each other. It functions the same way as a rap battle but in Portuguese and accompanied by a Concertina.
Central Portugal
The center of Portugal is the conjunction of Lisbon, Beira (Alta, Litoral, Baixa), and Ribatejo.
Fado: probably the genre which my country is most known for, it is a melancholic guitar and lyrical type of music that uses the theme of fate and Saudade (a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia) as a leitmotif. It is usually connected to its similarities to Flamenco. Fado de Coimbra or Student Fado is another variant of this genre.
Southern Portugal
Alentejo and Algarve. The south has the most significant Mozarabic influence, being the last region, a phonetic translation of the Arabic word Al-Gharb, which means The (Al-) West (Gharb) – the west of the Umayyad Caliphate.
Cantar Alentejano: vocal music from Alentejo without instrumentation performed by various singers at a single time or rarely singularly. Its influence is pre-Cristian and pre-Roman, a fusion between greek and Arab labour singing.